Richard Donner
The Goonies

On the day of the Epiphany of 1986, my parents decided to take me to the cinema, before the reopening of schools and the consequent, inescapable return to the daily chains made of multiplication tables, grammatical analysis, poems learned by heart, collages, and physical education with a medicine ball, pull-up bar, and dodgeball.

Very democratically, my parents decided to let me choose the movie I wanted. Therefore, I consulted the Giornalino, a comic weekly to which I was subscribed at the time, finding myself choosing between Legend by Ridley Scott, featuring a young Tom Cruise not yet Scientologist, and The Goonies by Richard Donner, produced by Steven Spielberg.

I chose Legend, but we arrived at the cinema late, having to settle for the Goonies. For the record, I have never seen Ridley Scott's film.

If twenty-one years later I find myself reviewing this film on the authoritative columns of DeBaser, trying to recover from the fresh controversies stemming from my previous review of an Antonioni "masterpiece," there must be a reason: it's not just nostalgia for childhood sung by the Ataris in their piece, "So Long Astoria", inspired precisely by the saga of the Goonies and the (supposed) freshness of times gone by that do not return, and it is not only the need to deal with lighter topics than those covered by much "art house" cinema, but, above all, the fact that this film has not aged at all, and appears, simply and ineffably, beautiful.

The plot is probably known to everyone, so I will limit myself to summarizing it for the few who are curious to discover the film: a group of kids from Astoria, Oregon, discovers in the attic of their house a map that belonged to the pirate One-Eyed Willy, and they embark on a quest for the corsair's treasure, in what will be their last adventure together, before being evicted from their neighborhood. They will have to deal with a criminal gang of Italian origin - the Fratelli clan - and the countless obstacles the pirate has placed between his treasure and the seekers. It will be worth it.

A typical film for youngsters, yet destined to speak to adults as well, the Goonies celebrates the reckless spirit of adventure of teenagers, their inventiveness, and the ability to be a group and to overcome their weaknesses together, be they a physical defect, asthma, shyness, arrogance itself, the fear of the unknown (and perhaps even of the future), exploiting the established themes of the late Romantic Bildungsroman, also akin to Stephen King of "Stand by Me." By pushing the youngsters to surpass their limits, almost like newly minted Indiana Joneses, the film also relaxes already grown spectators, perhaps with the bitter tone of those who no longer believe in fairy tales, struggling with bills, family crises, lack of work, but for a couple of hours want to forget all this and be dragged into another and faraway dimension, like the boundless forests and beaches of faraway Oregon, the caves in which the pirate's ship and treasure are hidden.

From a purely technical perspective, the film is beyond reproach, whether in terms of set design or location choice, or with regard to the overall development of the plot, truly captivating in the stages that lead to the discovery of the pirate's treasure and in the alternation of extremely comedic, almost slapstick moments with moments of greater tension, always sweetened by the lively tones of the film.

Excellent choice of actors, especially among the kids, like Mickey (Sean Astin, son of Gomez Addams and future Sam Gamgee in "The Lord of the Rings"), Brand (Josh Brolin, son of James, currently in Tarantino - Rodriguez's Death Proof), as well as the character actors Joe Pantoliano, Robert Davi, and Anne Ramsey, in addition to the former American football player John Matuszak, in the role of the monstrous "Sloth," who sadly died in 1989.

In summary, avoiding nostalgia, a film that remains relevant today, a small classic of its kind.